8 Year Old Girl Brings Women’s History Month To Life

Last fall we told you about Stella Amelia Ehrhart, the super cool eight year old with the inspiring attitude, famous name, and historic dress code. Today, she has made Women You Should Know history by becoming the youngest writer to ever contribute to our site.

We could not think of a better “GIRL You Should Know” to kick-off the first day of Women’s History Month for us than Stella and this piece she wrote exclusively for WYSK.

Of the countless historic women she has dressed as, Stella shares her thoughts on two of her favorites and what made her want to emulate them.

How Annie Oakley and Joan Baez Came To School With Me
By Stella Ehrhart

My name is Stella Amelia Ehrhart, and I am a third grader at Dundee Elementary in Omaha, Nebraska. At the beginning of second grade, when I was 7 years-old, I decided to dress as a different historical figure every day. Two of my favorites were Annie Oakley and Joan Baez!

Annie Oakley
When Annie Oakley was a little kid she had a lot of brothers and sisters, and they were very poor. Her father was a hunter, and he kept his gun above the fireplace. Annie was told to never touch his gun, but once when her father was away the family needed more food and Annie took down the gun and went hunting and brought back food for the family. After that she left home to work as a sharp shooter to earn money for her family.

When Annie was a little older she challenged a man named Frank Butler to a shooting match. He laughed when he thought that he was up against a girl, but Annie won the contest. Frank liked Annie so much that later on they got married.

They made a career traveling around doing a “shooting show” and first it was both of them, but Frank knew Annie was a better shot, so then they had an act where Frank would put on apple on their dog George’s head and Annie would shoot the apple. She got it every time.

Buffalo Bill came and saw their show. He asked Annie and Frank to be in his Wild West show. After a few years traveling around with the show Sitting Bull saw the show and “adopted” Annie. Annie spent time with him and she soon started beading all of her dresses and wearing moccasins. She also went to England and the Queen saw her show. She loved the whole thing and she loved Annie. Then they went to France. Once there was a newspaper article that said she got killed, but she was really still alive! Buffalo Bill had to tell the newspaper people that they were wrong.

I like Annie Oakley because I think it was awesome that she left her home as child to earn money for her family and it was her decision, not her mom’s.

Joan BaezJoan Baez was one of my favorites because she cared enough to face violence in Grenada, Mississippi when she walked with black kids, Martin Luther King junior and others to fight segregation. She liked Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of non-violence. As a popular singer she thought that people would not hurt the group of kids if she was with them.

Joan Baez did other important, cool things like protesting the Vietnam War, she camped out in a 180-foot redwood tree that was 1,000 years old to stop it from being cut down, and she still sings songs about saving the Earth. And when a lot of bad things stop happening, she sang, “…the men and women of the Earth shall rest.”

As we told you in our original post about Stella, neither of her parents supplies the costumes or the ideas for the important women from history she dresses as. She draws much of her inspiration from her “100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century” book. Her parents just roll with what Stella wants to do and support her, grateful that she’s emulating stories and strength, not beauty.

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Stella, you’ve written a beautiful piece and given us a lot of information on two very important women we should know. YOU are definitely a young woman we should know!! Congratulations!!

Andrea

As a professor of women’s literature, I say bravo to you! We’ve been following your story in my women’s lit class, and my college-aged students admire your commitment to celebrating important women in history.

Carol

Oh my goodness or should I say goddess? I hadn’t heard of this story and I am stunned at the self awareness and confidence this young woman exhibits. What an incredible, individual soul. Congratulations to her parents for clearly doing something right in a world that is sometimes just so wrong. Now this is a girl who should star in a reality show, someone young people can really learn from.